Shovels hit the ground at Mill River Park

Maggie Gordon, Stamford Advocate

Maggie Gordon, Staff Writer

Updated 8:57 pm, Saturday, October 15, 2011

Allen Spuleck of OLIN shows Stamford resident Prakash Wadhwani the plans for the new Mill River Park in Stamford at My Park Day. The 12-acre park is in its first phase of construction.
Photo: J. Gregory Raymond

STAMFORD -- Several hundred people gathered in Mill River Park Saturday morning to celebrate the groundbreaking of phase one of the park's construction with face-painting, games, fresh air and an official ceremony.

"The idea of a central park in Stamford along the banks of the Mill River is a 100-year-old idea. But it was only 10 years ago, almost to the day that the Board of Representatives approved a plan developed by the Urban Redevelopment Commission to create the Mill River Park, and now just 10 years later, after a century of talking about it, we are actually going to build it," said Arthur Selkowitz, board chairman of the Mill River Collaborative, the public-private partnership responsible for the park's development.

Selkowitz joined Mayor Michael Pavia, former Stamford mayor and now Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other officials shortly before noon Saturday to tap the first shovels in the ground.

In phase one of construction, which will cost $11.4 million, the collaborative plans to install 12 acres of green infrastructure, including more than 400 new trees and 1,000 shrubs, and walkways.

"By next spring you're going to see 100 cherry trees out there," Selkowitz said Saturday morning.

In future phases of the $60 million project, a carousel, pavilion, fountain and outdoor ice-skating rink will be added.

"This project provides an oasis, a symbol of Stamford's greatness, its ability to move forward but restore and reclaim what is also best about its past, and that is an enormously meaningful achievement, well beyond the 28 acres, the river itself and even well beyond the beautiful treasure that it will be for Stamford, for Fairfield County and for the entire state of Connecticut. This park will be a gem," said Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

Before the project, Mill River was more of a "cesspool" than an oasis, Selkowitz said after the ceremony.

"Look how wonderful the river is. Can you remember what a swamp it was?" he asked.

Over the last several years, two dams and a concrete wall have been removed from the area, allowing the river to run free for the first time in more than three centuries, and several acres of the lot have been ridden of the invasive plant life that once suffocated the grounds.

"I grew up with the Mill River as we used to know it," said Malloy. "You couldn't see the water because there were walls around it, and it was hard to enjoy, although I do remember some winters actually ice skating all the way down from almost Scalzi Park, down to the park, then back up."

It doesn't look like much yet, noted Stamford resident Lori Gilbert, who brought her two daughters, ages 2 and 4, to the celebration Saturday morning for face painting and other activities.

"Right now, I know there's plans to do a lot of the building and stuff, but right now I'm not that impressed but I think it will be something," Gilbert said. "It'll be exciting when it's all finished."

Staff writer Maggie Gordon can be reached at maggie.gordon@scni.com or 203-964-2229.